{"id":38956,"date":"2015-02-25T00:48:59","date_gmt":"2015-02-25T05:48:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=38956"},"modified":"2015-02-25T01:52:04","modified_gmt":"2015-02-25T06:52:04","slug":"will-sri-lanka-turn-into-maldives-with-maithripala-and-ranil-becoming-like-nashed-and-wahid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=38956","title":{"rendered":"Will Sri Lanka Turn Into Maldives with Maithripala and Ranil Becoming Like Nasheed and Wahid?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Upul Joseph Fernando<\/strong><\/p>\n

The media reported on Monday that former Maldivian President Abdul Nasheed was arrested on terrorism charges. The fate of Nasheed is a lesson for Maithri and Ranil who leads the present government. <\/p>\n

Today, the President of Maldives is Abdullah Yameen, half brother of former President Abdul Gayoom who ruled Maldives for 30 long years until Nasheed and Waheed joined to oust him. After ousting Gayoom, both Nasheed and Waheed crossed swords for Presidency. <\/p>\n

Finally, the alliance broke and Nasheed was ousted while Waheed took control of the country.<\/p>\n

It was Abdul Gayoom who manipulated measures to create dissension between Nasheed and Waheed to get his half brother installed as President. Gayoom ruled Maldives for 30 years suppressing the Opposition. The Opposition parties too were at loggerheads and that gave oxygen to Gayoom.<\/p>\n

Gayoom jailed his Opposition Leader Abdul Nasheed when he was in power. After Nasheed was released from jail, he chose to live in Sri Lanka to operate his political work. As developments turned worse in Maldives, the United States, India, the West and Sri Lanka joined hands to oust Abdul Gayoom to restore democracy in Maldives.<\/p>\n

With the mediation of these powerful countries, the Opposition in Maldives rallied round Nasheed and defeated the strongman Gayoom whom everybody thought could not be ousted from power. Nasheed became President. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In a brief period his government clashed with alliance partners and Nasheed clashed with his Vice President Waheed. Countrywide strikes and demonstrations were the order of the day due to this situation. Nasheed was thrown out and Waheed became the interim President. At the 2013 Presidential election, Gayoom’s half brother Abdulla Yameen assumed the presidency.<\/p>\n

Yameen contested through the People’s Progressive Movement (PPM) formed by Gayoom in 2011. Gayoom formed that new party because he could not hold control of his former DRP. Though Gayoom introduced himself as the retired supreme leader, an internal revolution in the party disclaimed him as the retired supreme leader. He called the DRP members as corrupt men and formed the PPM. Being the leader of the PPM he managed to get Yameen elected as President. Today both Nasheed and Waheed are at home. Today they have realized that it was Abdul Gayoom who had been behind the conspiracy to divide and oust them.<\/p>\n

Disproving astrology…<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Maldivian episode is a fine lesson for Ranil, Maithri and those around them. Ranil and Maithri together performed a tough silent revolution with the Opposition to oust Mahinda. It disproved belief in planetary stars and astrological predictions. No President in office had been defeated at an election in this country. Also, every President assumed office being a Prime Minister with the support of the ruling party. President J. R. Jayewardene went for his second term as incumbent President. Ranasinghe Premadasa as Prime Minister successfully contested the presidency in 1988 to be elected as President. Chandrika Kumaratunga as Prime Minister 1994 too was elected as President with the support of her ruling party. In 2005 Mahinda as Prime Minister contested and was elected the President.<\/p>\n

Contrary to the past practice, Maithri contested the presidency this year from a weak position as SLFP General Secretary. He had to win through the votes of the SLFP arch rival UNP. He contested from a political party and symbol that was defeated in 2010. General Sarath Fonseka contested the Presidency in 2010 not as a SLFPer but as a war hero. In such a backdrop, the battle against Mahinda was a tough one for Maithri. Amidst all obstacles and beliefs that Mahinda could not be defeated; Maithri successfully defeated the Rajapaksas. The shadow behind his victory was the UNP vote base. Careful studies of his vote bank indicate that the number of votes given to him by the SLFP and JHU could be meagre. The reason is that the SLFP and JHU vote bank which was stable in Matara, Galle, Hambantota, Moneragala and Anuradhapura, all went in favour of Mahinda more than what the UPFA obtained at provincial polls. It meant that those from the SLFP and JHU who left the UPFA had been unable to muster the vote bank of their parties. They may have had attracted the floating youth vote. Maithri won through the combination of the UNP, new Youth, Tamil, Muslim and the floating votes.<\/p>\n


\nRanil’s historic sacrifice<\/strong><\/p>\n

The decision of the UNP to elect Maithri as President, a SLFP General Secretary of their rival party was a historic one. The SLFP had always wanted to grab the larger share in politics and had never made such a sacrifice like the UNP. In 1994, the SLFP formed an alliance to defeat the UNP but retained the positions of President and Prime Minister for the party. It was the same in 2005. The General Secretary of the SLFP and the Alliance was D. M. Jayaratne. Susil Premajayantha was made the General Secretary of the UPFA in 2004. But the UNP sacrificed the party, symbol and presidential candidature for Maithri. At the time Chandrika announced at a media briefing that the UNP would support the candidature of Maithri, the decision was not even ratified by the UNP Executive Committee. Ranil had all the powers at his command as UNP leader to nullify Chandrika’s claim at the UNP Ex-Co.<\/p>\n

Maithri paid gratitude to Ranil by serving the major share to the UNP after his victory. He made Ranil the Prime Minister though the UNP had no majority in Parliament. If Maithri wanted, he could have asked Ranil to show his majority in the House. Despite the calls by the SLFP to lead the party having defeated the SLFP candidate, Maithri gave a free hand to Ranil to name the Cabinet and make appointments to ministries. Maithri faced embarrassment within the SLFP as party leader. However, Maithri got the SLFP support for the mini budget too. Had the SLFP opposed the budget, Ranil and his UNP would have been sent home. Today, both Maithri and Ranil must not think of their political parties but of the hopes of 6.2 million voters who voted for them.<\/p>\n

Those 6.2 million voters dream of a better domestic economy and job opportunities for their siblings. The SLFP cannot meet those tasks evaluating their performances over the past two decades. Only Ranil and his UNP can do it. Maithri’s Sinhala village and Buddhist personality which protects the nation combined with Ranil’s nation building policy, only benefits Maithri.<\/p>\n

If Maithri and Ranil begin to battle each other putting their political parties and supporters before the needs and hopes of those 6.2 million voters, Mahinda might even try to bring one of his brothers to power in the manner Abdul Gayoom installed his half brother Yameen as President of Maldives. If that happens, Maithri will have to spend the remaining part of his life in jail though Ranil may end up as Waheed.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:Ceylon Today<\/em><\/p>\n

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By Upul Joseph Fernando The media reported on Monday that former Maldivian President Abdul Nasheed was arrested on terrorism charges. The fate of Nasheed is a lesson for Maithri and Ranil who leads the present government. Today, the President of Maldives is Abdullah Yameen, half brother of former President Abdul Gayoom who ruled Maldives for …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Will Sri Lanka Turn Into Maldives with Maithripala and Ranil Becoming Like Nasheed and Wahid?’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38956"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38956"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38958,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38956\/revisions\/38958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}